With so many lakes both syndicate and day ticket having depths way beyond the norm, we run through our best tips to ensure you catch consistently.
With so many lakes both syndicate and day ticket having depths way beyond the norm, we run through our best tips to ensure you catch consistently.
There’s no denying, the UK has a significant divide when it comes to fish size in the north of the country, as opposed to the south, but broadly speaking, the same can be suggested for the depth of the fisheries in the north compared to the south. The vast majority of the gravel pits in the southern parts of the UK are fairly shallow, with the deepest areas barely reaching 12ft deep. Of course, there are several exceptions to this generalisation, but it seems the northern pits were excavated much deeper, with most have areas of over 20ft and some with depths as extreme as 50ft or more.
No matter where you are situated, a venue with depths of over 15ft as an average can be classed as a deep lake in anyone’s book. With this vast volume of water comes challenges but as anglers we are made to adapt and overcome to consistently catch from these venues. If you aren’t used to the lead taking several seconds to touch down, then it can be very daunting, but hopefully, these five tips will help your confidence soar, along with your catch rate.
There’s no denying, the UK has a significant divide when it comes to fish size in the north of the country, as opposed to the south, but broadly speaking, the same can be suggested for the depth of the fisheries in the north compared to the south. The vast majority of the gravel pits in the southern parts of the UK are fairly shallow, with the deepest areas barely reaching 12ft deep. Of course, there are several exceptions to this generalisation, but it seems the northern pits were excavated much deeper, with most have areas of over 20ft and some with depths as extreme as 50ft or more.
No matter where you are situated, a venue with depths of over 15ft as an average can be classed as a deep lake in anyone’s book. With this vast volume of water comes challenges but as anglers we are made to adapt and overcome to consistently catch from these venues. If you aren’t used to the lead taking several seconds to touch down, then it can be very daunting, but hopefully, these five tips will help your confidence soar, along with your catch rate.
TIP ONE
THEY ARE STILL CARP
THEY ARE STILL CARP
It may sound like we are teaching your granny to suck eggs here, but a carp in a deep lake is exactly the same creature as one in a shallow lake. They spend all of their lives in their own environment and don’t care if they are swimming in 5ft or 25ft of water, that is something we as anglers are guilty of over thinking. If you find a lovely spot, a slight depression, a raised area, or a clear patch in some weed, then you treat it just same as you would on any other lake, there’s no need to find the shallowest spot all the time.
TIP TWO
STICKY... BAIT
STICKY... BAIT
When baiting in deep lakes, you have to take the depth into account. There’s no use filling the swim in with boilie crumb, maggots and krill powder, only for the undertow to deposit it yards away from your intended spot. There’s a couple of ways you can combat this, the first is to use a liquid food in your mix, such as Pure Calanus or Pure Fish Liquid. These thick liquids will help semi-bind your spod mix together, forming small lumps which sink directly down over the top of your rigs without drifting away. The second way to ensure your bait gets down to the bottom is to use bigger baits, whole boilies and 6mm pellets will drift very minimally, if at all and as such will land perfectly on your spot without having to do anything special to them.
TIP THREE
ENEMNY NUMBER ONE... WEATHER
ENEMNY NUMBER ONE... WEATHER
The trickiest part of tackling deep lakes is the weather, during extended spells of warm conditions with high air pressure, the fish are going to spend a lot of time higher in the water column. During these periods the best way to target them is either in the margins on the shallower shelves or on Zigs/surface fishing tactics. Zigs seem to be a firm favourite with many anglers as it gives you more chances, by using two or three rods, you can vary the depth to ensure you hit the exact zone the fish are swimming in. All of this considered, there’s always a chance even in the hottest of conditions that the fish want to feed on the bottom, so it’s always worth keeping your eyes peeled for signs of feeding activity.
TIP FOUR
CHOP 'EM UP
CHOP 'EM UP
A lot of deep lakes will have stepped shelves going down into the lake, and the deeper the lake, the harsher the shelves tend to be in gradient. These steep shelves can often be great features to fish to but you have to ensure your bait is prepared properly so it stays on your spot. If you place a round boilie on a slope, it will of course roll away until the ground levels off, the same thing happens underwater. As such, to avoid all of your bait rolling away, you should chop your baits up into halves, or a bit smaller if you prefer. Don’t go too small though, as you will end up potentially catching the undertow and be back at square one again.
TIP FIVE
SWING BACK
SWING BACK
Accuracy is the final point we would like to highlight, as it’s something that takes a bit of getting used to. On shallow lakes, clipping your spod rod and fishing rods up at the same range won’t make much difference, however, on deep lakes the swing back on the lead as it falls can be immense, so it’s important to compensate for that. The distance it swings back is a finite thing, it all depends how you cast and how you hit the clip whilst feeling the lead down. The best way of getting things super accurate is to use a marker float, this will help you find the clip for your fishing rods. Then, for baiting up, you reduce the distance of the clip on your spod rod until it lands on the same line as the float every time. This guarantees you are 100% accurate and will undoubtably catch you more fish.
There are some superb fish to catch in the UKs deep lakes, and if you target them in the right way there’s no reason you can’t have success. We hope these tips give you more confidence to fish deep venues and as is often said, angling is a confidence game and if you fish with confidence your results will speak for themselves.
